Poetry with a question

I intended to add this to Mr.Linky on dVerse, for today’s open link Night. However,  I hesitate to again mistaken rules of the poetry form, at the same time anxious to learn. This one here is my attempt at putting it into the formation of a Nonet, but to fit it, I had to change the wording just a little on Joyce Kilmer’s famous poems titled “Trees” lines in question are 11-12. My question would be, is it permitted to change a quote, just a little?

Nonet poetry: nine lines with the syllable count of
9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

God’s design! His poets find God through
His handiwork; some with just sight
While others are gifted with
The vision as Kilmer
states, “Poems are made
by fools like me
only God
makes a
tree.”